Who Really Ended Valerie Plame's Career?

It was a story that consumed official Washington for three years and was fanned by media reports. But a Washington Post editorial today says the revelation that Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, not a partisan gunslinger, was the original leaker in the Valerie Plame case undercuts what it calls "one of the most sensational charges leveled against the Bush White House that it orchestrated the leak of Ms. Plame's identity to ruin her career" and punish her husband, Bush critic Joe Wilson. The Post flatly declares that it is now clear those accusations are "untrue."

Wilson's attorney continues to insist that White House officials publicly tried to punish him by outing Valerie Plame as a CIA operative and says the paper wrongly implied that he was sent to Niger at his wife's suggestion, though one investigation found just that.

But The Post claims Wilson should have expected that questions about the origins of his mission would point to Plame, saying: "The person most responsible for the end of Ms. Plame's CIA career is Mr. Wilson" himself.

Cinematic Controversy

A British film premiering one day before the 5th anniversary of 9/11 depicts the graphic assassination of President Bush.

The mock documentary, titled "Death of a President," takes an imaginary look back at the president's death at the hands of a Chicago sniper and the subsequent overzealous investigation of an Arab suspect. The film suggests the Bush administration fosters xenophobia and stifles civil liberties in the War on Terror.

The White House has declined to comment on the movie, but the head of the Toronto Film Festival calls it "the most dangerous and breathtakingly original film" of the year.

Miller Time

When pro-illegal immigration demonstrators march in downtown Chicago this weekend, they'll be backed by Miller Brewing Company, which paid more than $30,000 to sponsor the rally.

Immigration activists say they're increasingly relying on corporate donors eager to tap the growing Latino market. But critics say Miller's money is also supporting the protester's goal of ending deportation and legalizing all 12 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

One marketing guru tells the Chicago Tribune that corporations should steer clear of the immigration debate, calling it "no different than a company sponsoring groups for or against abortion."

Rewriting Classics

A controversial new Turkish curriculum has put a new spin on 100 classic children's stories by inserting Islam.

New books feature boy puppet Pinocchio telling his maker, Gepetto, "Thanks be to Allah," while one of the Three Musketeers now converts to Islam.

Even Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer — who went to extraordinary lengths to avoid schoolwork, much less religious devotion — is transformed into a willing student of Islamic prayers.

And the new Turkish version of the naively optimistic Pollyanna now says she believes in the end of the world, as predicted in the Koran.